best provider thats cheap

[vigor5000]

Im looking for a cheap provider to add on with Astraweb so I can get faster speed, any recommendations?

I'd really like to know what are you using for an ISP, and what is the route (do a tracert) from you to Astra(US/EU).

Most providers are at the same number of connections (20) as Astra, I easily 'swamp' my 30Mb/s with running 15 and I have swamped it with 10 (but keep at 15, leave 4+ for additional connex to EU server or for Blocknews 'when SABnzbd thinks it's 'necessary')

This is on Docsis3, not fiber (fiber in my area is literally one block away but they won't 'wire' my cul-de-sac due to back-room deal with Comcrud).

I'm 850+ miles from the Astra/US plant, as the fiber runs. And I go through a VPN on top of that (great server from that provider).

So until I see your route, I don't know why you're getting poor service speed/transfer wise.

More: Just fer fun, I needed to suck down a nice BD50 today, and set my SABnabD down to less than the usual (15) connections, and didn't see the throughput start to be affected (<30Mb/s) until I got below 8 connections. With 6, it was obvious.

Now, you also didn't say what kind of machine you are using, in my case, it's a 4-core AMD/P2 Black 3200Mhz+ with fair (not top of the line) ram, but top line WD/Black HD drives, and an older (for today, top line when built 5 years ago) Asus MB w/ gigabit lan. In short, for today, pretty middle or even below middle of the road. Yes, stuff gets 'old'. Not my 'best' machine, but those that are better are busy with other, more CPU intensive tasks ( recode city).

Maybe I got good internet (for what I throw at Comcrud every month I should!). I lust for fiber. I MAY move this summer onto FIOS so we shall see.

Sorry for the late reply, so I have Docsis3 cable internet too(150/10) and I did a tracert to the US SSL host and was wondering why it gives me a 207.246.207.xxx address and sometimes a 216.151.153.xxx address.I have a OCed quad core and using WD BLack + SSD's so thats not the issue,although I used to have problems with the repair + unrar stopping my downloading on my Seagate drive.I signed up with a UNS Holdings reseller for the times I cant max out my connection, helps on Sunday nights.Just curious why do you use Giganews? when there are cheaper alternatives.

traceroute to ssl-us.astraweb.com (216.151.153.11), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
 1  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  10.406 ms  6.714 ms  6.281 ms
 2  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  9.096 ms  11.296 ms  7.716 ms
 3  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  11.115 ms  12.883 ms  11.538 ms
 4  10ge7-4.core1.tor1.he.net (209.51.164.81)  15.284 ms  7.855 ms  16.899 ms
 5  100ge13-1.core1.chi1.he.net (184.105.80.5)  20.531 ms  18.469 ms  17.972 ms
 6  10ge3-2.core1.den1.he.net (184.105.213.86)  43.525 ms  42.934 ms  10ge11-4.core1.pao1.he.net (184.105.222.173)  72.350 ms
 7  *  *  *
 8  eqx-ix.sj.astraweb.com (206.223.116.89)  73.017 ms  71.576 ms  71.307 ms
 9  unknown.sj.astraweb.com (216.151.153.11)  69.902 ms  74.682 ms  71.296 ms

traceroute to ssl-us.astraweb.com (207.246.207.130), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
 1  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  7.471 ms  7.326 ms  9.885 ms
 2  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  10.132 ms  10.714 ms  11.881 ms
 3  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  12.255 ms  12.402 ms  14.530 ms
 4  10ge7-4.core1.tor1.he.net (209.51.164.81)  9.237 ms  10.639 ms  7.976 ms
 5  100ge13-1.core1.chi1.he.net (184.105.80.5)  17.674 ms  20.040 ms  22.840 ms
 6  10ge11-4.core1.pao1.he.net (184.105.222.173)  78.819 ms  69.494 ms  10ge3-2.core1.den1.he.net (184.105.213.86)  51.222 ms
 7  10ge13-5.core1.sjc2.he.net (184.105.213.105)  82.466 ms  70.621 ms  72.004 ms
 8  eqx-ix.sj.astraweb.com (206.223.116.89)  72.589 ms  71.417 ms  72.991 ms
 9  207.246.207.130 (207.246.207.130)  73.488 ms  71.595 ms  84.006 ms

traceroute to ssl-us.astraweb.com (216.151.153.21), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
 1  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  8.631 ms  8.017 ms  11.217 ms
 2  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)   7.724 ms  11.060 ms  11.923 ms
 3  xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  12.196 ms  10.761 ms  7.882 ms
 4  10ge7-4.core1.tor1.he.net (209.51.164.81)  8.048 ms  15.439 ms  7.789 ms
 5  100ge13-1.core1.chi1.he.net (184.105.80.5)  17.508 ms  24.999 ms  18.585 ms
 6  10ge11-4.core1.pao1.he.net (184.105.222.173)  78.869 ms  70.312 ms  10ge3-2.core1.den1.he.net (184.105.213.86)  43.807 ms
 7  10ge13-5.core1.sjc2.he.net (184.105.213.105)  70.509 ms  70.753 ms  68.901 ms
 8  eqx-ix.sj.astraweb.com (206.223.116.89)  131.413 ms  197.555 ms  203.877 ms
 9  unknown.sj.astraweb.com (216.151.153.21)  72.809 ms  84.839 ms  69.993 ms

[Beck38]

I have am extremely low-end GigaNews account that you can't even buy anymore (grandfathered) for $2/month. It's what I use to 'test' propagation from Astra block account used to post, leaving my 'unlimited' Astra account open for whatever ('leech'). This is account specs (particularly the Astra block account) what you'll find most serious uploaders use.

Astra/US 'flips' which feeds you are being 'fed' with every few hours, so that any Tier1 provider doesn't feel like they are being 'hammered' particularly. I see mine change from Level3 to Comcast to Congentco and that's just the last 30 miles from my hosting facility (VPN) in SF to the Astra facility in San Jose. Now of course, it still runs on whatever Comcrud uses for their main connectivity (mostly Level3 in these parts), so from the 'local loop' here to SF is over their plaint (I helped redesign lots of Level3 on the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego about 15 years ago, probably been done yet again for sure since).

I rarely find that Hurricane Electric is 'in the mix', although they are Headquartered right there in Fremont CA (used to live there years ago). One would think that isn't quite the problem, but if that's your ISP's 'main squeeze' for internet connectivity, you may be stuck with them; this may be 'fallout' from not having decent net neutrality laws in this country.

Once (if ever) I get on fiber, things may change (different provider, 2-3 times the speed I have now at half the cost). But if that's your main constriction (what looks like Toronto to Chicago to Palo Alto to San Jose) there may be some 'squeeze' going on there, most probably in the Toronto to Chicago loop. It was better than 20 years ago I did work on fiber coming out of Toronto 'going south' so it's really out of date. But Hurricane 'may' be routing things wrong, they could be sending your traffic out Toronto through Winnipeg BACK to Chicago then out to Palo Alto, who knows (not going through routers in Winnipeg, simply what's called a wavelength point to point connection, perhaps because the Toronto to Chicago waves are 'full up'.

Only someone either at your ISP or Hurricane would 'know fer sure'. But over the years, folks in the north land have always had problems of one type of another.

[vigor5000]

So the reason why I get slow speeds sometimes is because "Hurricane 'may' be routing things wrong, they could be sending your traffic out Toronto through Winnipeg BACK to Chicago then out to Palo Alto".So since the plant is far away and because of the routing this is normal then for me to experience slow speeds ,and there is no solution?When it is slow I got to use more then 10 connection to make it faster.

[piercerseth]

vigor5000, is your reverse traceroute identical? http://www.news.astraweb.com/tools/tracepub.cgi

Secondly, have you tried running connections to both the US & EU sides simultaneously? Like a ghetto load balancer. Start 50/50 and then bias the # of connections whichever way provides the greatest speed.

[Beck38]

Knowing, of course, that the route would be Toronto through NYC then out to the trans-Atlantic fiber systems (most landing stations these days are either on Long Island or New Jersey shore vrs Rhode Island 'back in the day', those stations are mostly now shut down w/ cables decommissioned.

Also, since Sept11, every big interconnection point in NYC has been rebuilt a couple of times (from WTC1/2 sub-basement which was the largest fiber interconnect in the world at the time, some building in NJ is supposed to be now, between North Bergen/Union City and Fort Lee if I'm not mistaken, and probably am) but all should be super-speed at this point. As long as your bits can get OUT of Toronto in decent fashion.

For me, Cogentco redid a bunch of wave connections (multiple 100G) across the US to SF a couple years back, and that really helped connecting to Astra/EU. I await someone to redo them again to multi-Terabit.

He has a goodly amount of bandwidth from the ISP. I could be that fast but I simply won't pay the $300+/month to Comcrud, when the fiber is 1/2 to 1/3'rd that. I REALLY got to move.

[vigor5000]

vigor5000, is your reverse traceroute identical? http://www.news.astraweb.com/tools/tracepub.cgi

Secondly, have you tried running connections to both the US & EU sides simultaneously? Like a ghetto load balancer. Start 50/50 and then bias the # of connections whichever way provides the greatest speed.

Hey ya it looks the same but I used the SSL server hostname to do tracert too it, don't know if it matters.I have tried using US and EU at same time but I was doing 10 connections each,I will try lowering the connections and see how it works out,at the moment I am having no speed issues getting 16-17MB/s.Exactly one week ago I was experiencing slow speeds on Astra,Supernews,Newsdemon(slowest to highest speed) I switched through the different providers and increased the connections but could not get more then 3-5MB/s on astra and like 6-8MB/s on Supernews and then was able to get 10-14 MB/s on Newsdemon , this lasted for few hours till I was able to get full speed on lower connections.I tried my Usenetbucket free account out durig that time too and was able to get full speeds no problem.

Traceroute from us.news.astraweb.com:

	  	Hostname 	  	                                                Best 	  	Worst 	  	Avg 	  	 
0 	  	gw.eqnx.sj.astraweb.com (216.151.153.1) 	  	                0.28 	  	0.36 	  	0.32 	  	 
1 	  	10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.sjc2.he.net (206.223.116.37) 	  	1.39 	  	6.03 	  	3.30 	  	 
2 	  	10ge5-2.core1.pao1.he.net (72.52.92.69) 	  	                1.98 	  	12.30 	  	6.71 	  	 
3 	  	10ge12-8.core1.chi1.he.net (184.105.222.174) 	  	                53.01 	  	93.01 	  	70.11 	  	 
4 	  	100ge9-2.core1.tor1.he.net (184.105.80.6) 	  	                62.76 	  	94.62 	  	73.20 	  	 
5 	  	10gigabitethernet3-1.core1.tor1.he.net (xxx.xx.xxx.xx) 	         	62.23 	  	62.87 	  	62.57 	  	 
6 	  	                                            (xxx.x.xxx.xx) 	  	63.57 	  	67.40 	  	65.51

[Beck38]

You know, the one thing that hasn't come up in this conversation, is the possibility that the ISP is throttling usenet traffic; where changing the port you are using (SSL or non-SSL) may help. Astra does support a couple of really non-standard ports on both SSL/non-SSL transmissions.

Another 'work around' (especially since you are crossing an international border) is a VPN service. The best ones (paid) are excellent speed wise (so far and according to unsolicited reports the one I use is good to go for 1Gb/s fiber speeds) but of course add to overall costs. But try swapping the ports around if you already haven't.

Using a VPN router means ALL the traffic you generate goes through the VPN, your ISP and even intermediate carriers don't know squat about what your traffic is or the destination, until it reaches the outgoing port at (changeable) city X. I wouldn't use a cable internet service without it, and haven't since the day I got off DSL several years ago.

Anyway, it's yet some more thoughts; it's probably pretty frustrating not to get the speeds you're paying for (probably through the nose). When I see my 'shared' cable service speeds take a dive every evening as the working folk get home and fire up their links, even though I'm on a 'commercial' line and paying dearly for it, I grind my teeth and know I've got to get off my rear and MOVE to fiber. It will happen, just got to get all the ducks in order so that all the costing results in, at the end of the day, lower pricing all around (energy, internet, taxes, etc.).

[vigor5000]

You know, the one thing that hasn't come up in this conversation, is the possibility that the ISP is throttling usenet traffic; where changing the port you are using (SSL or non-SSL) may help. Astra does support a couple of really non-standard ports on both SSL/non-SSL transmissions.

Another 'work around' (especially since you are crossing an international border) is a VPN service. The best ones (paid) are excellent speed wise (so far and according to unsolicited reports the one I use is good to go for 1Gb/s fiber speeds) but of course add to overall costs. But try swapping the ports around if you already haven't.

Using a VPN router means ALL the traffic you generate goes through the VPN, your ISP and even intermediate carriers don't know squat about what your traffic is or the destination, until it reaches the outgoing port at (changeable) city X. I wouldn't use a cable internet service without it, and haven't since the day I got off DSL several years ago.

Anyway, it's yet some more thoughts; it's probably pretty frustrating not to get the speeds you're paying for (probably through the nose). When I see my 'shared' cable service speeds take a dive every evening as the working folk get home and fire up their links, even though I'm on a 'commercial' line and paying dearly for it, I grind my teeth and know I've got to get off my rear and MOVE to fiber. It will happen, just got to get all the ducks in order so that all the costing results in, at the end of the day, lower pricing all around (energy, internet, taxes, etc.).

I have tried switching the ports around,I get better speeds on 443.I have also tried a VPN but the best speed I got with it was 4MB/s.

[Beck38]

I have tried switching the ports around,I get better speeds on 443.I have also tried a VPN but the best speed I got with it was 4MB/s.

4MegaBYTES or 4MegaBITS. Don't fall into the Euro trap of confusing the two. If 4Mb/s (BITS) then it was a pretty poor excuse for a VPN service, although even 4MBYTES/S (which would equal 32Mbits/s) would still be pretty poor. The service I use has been tested by folks with FIOS (>300Mb/s symmetrical in the eastern US) and with those with 1Gb/s download (various non-Google fiber around the US) with excellent results. But I'll admit that both the client h/w (VPN router plus accelerator) is a bit steep (>$700US) and the cost for the service is >$20/month. So not cheap by any means. I have the VPN router sans accelerator which is about half that h/w cost, and can add the second accelerator part later on when I get on fiber.

People have tended to call me a bit 'nuts', but I tell them, as I'm retired, that it all keeps me 'off the streets'. (!)

[vigor5000]

I have tried switching the ports around,I get better speeds on 443.I have also tried a VPN but the best speed I got with it was 4MB/s.

4MegaBYTES or 4MegaBITS. Don't fall into the Euro trap of confusing the two. If 4Mb/s (BITS) then it was a pretty poor excuse for a VPN service, although even 4MBYTES/S (which would equal 32Mbits/s) would still be pretty poor. The service I use has been tested by folks with FIOS (>300Mb/s symmetrical in the eastern US) and with those with 1Gb/s download (various non-Google fiber around the US) with excellent results. But I'll admit that both the client h/w (VPN router plus accelerator) is a bit steep (>$700US) and the cost for the service is >$20/month. So not cheap by any means. I have the VPN router sans accelerator which is about half that h/w cost, and can add the second accelerator part later on when I get on fiber.

People have tended to call me a bit 'nuts', but I tell them, as I'm retired, that it all keeps me 'off the streets'. (!)

Yes 4MegaBYTES, usually I see it like MB/s or MiB/s. Well i guess since it was a $5 vpn service I wouid only get that kinda speed.What VPN provider are you with if you don't mind sharing?